. amidst a lot of partisan rhetoric on both sides, talks on the fiscal cliff are now at a stand still, and the president is back on the campaign trail of sorts. this time to try to win in a court of public opinion for his plan to avert an automatic tax hike for everyone on january 1. that's where we'll start this morning with the point man on the negotiations for all of this. the secretary of treasury, tim geithner. and our roundtable is also here. standing by for reaction, including the man behind the republican pledge not to raise taxes at all, not to raise tax rates, grover norquist. here's here. we'll get reaction from him as well in our roundtable. but first, i sat down with secretary geithner at the treasury department late friday. mr. secretary, welcome back to "meet the press." thank you for having us at the treasury department. >> good to see you. >> you are the president's lead negotiator. you have been to capitol hill. you presented the president's offer. and it immediately was not received well. it was called by republican leaders unserious. they have accused the president

the fiscal cliff. >> it's not a serious proposal. and so right now, we're almost nowhere. >> will there be a deal by the end of the year? and what are the consequences for the economy if there isn't one? we'll ask the president's lead budget negotiator, treasury secretary tim geithner. >>> then the view from capitol hill. are democrats as divided over cutting medicare as republicans are over tax increases? with us, two voices calling for compromise. republican senator bob corker of tennessee and democratic senator claire mccaskill of missouri. >>> finally, our special economic roundtable. as both sides battle over the nation's fiscal health, what can we expect from the economy in a second obama term? what is the vision for an economic rebound? >>> from nbc news in washington, the world's longest-running television program, this is "meet the press" with david gregory. >>> and good sunday morning. amidst a lot of partisan rhetoric on both sides, talks on the fiscal cliff are now at a stand still, and the president is back on the campaign trail of sorts. this time to try to win in a

think we get to 85 and then rebounds and get back up to the 88-89 level. the fiscal cliff talks not going anywhere yet. during the next two weeks we will start to see some positive remarks. one thing that is very interesting, heat and oil settled in a very weak position. those two coming off could take the energy complex down much further. right now only 85 to 85.10. cheryl: we have plenty of supply out there right now. we are in the middle of winter. >> we have a tremendous amount of supply. we do not have much cold weather coming up near term. once the fiscal cliff starts getting resolved, you will see some buying going on. cheryl: bobby, i want to go back to you about europe. we have not had a lot of problees. seems like the greeks are kind to getting things. >> the last few days, europe markets have been pretty strong. as you said, a sleeping giant. cheryl: i do not want to see anything change. it has been nice. gentlemen, thank you. i appreciate it. great floor show today. uncertainty seems to be the norm in washington these days. last year you have the debt ceiling convey. con

bartiromo at the new york stock exchange. as we hurry toward the edges of the fiscal cliff, this market holding its breath. but holding up. >> yes, so far. technology one of the few bright spots with apple rebounding after that huge decline we saw yesterday. its worst day in four years. it's got everybody on wall street scratching their heads trying to figure out what the problem is with apple. at any rate, here's where we stands right now. sort of a meandering day for the markets. some economic data out this morning. the market responding to that. then a sideways move after that. the nasdaq benefitting from the rebound in technology yesterday. up 11.5 points on the thatnasda. the s&p is also trading higher. there it is. up 2.5 points on the s&p. >> meanwhile, bullish sentiment at an eight-month high right now. equity allocation is still at the lowest level of the year according to the american association of individual investors survey that was out this weekend. stock in a wait-and-see mode. totally understandable until these fiscal issues are resolved. >> but don't just sit on your ha

requirements. and then there's the fiscal cliff. analysts citing fears about a hike in capital gains tax in 2013. rick santelli has been talking about this, though, the things that were up in 2012, those are the things being sold now, whether that be gold or any number of assets that rose appreciably over the course of the last year. we'll be talking about the future of apple and the outlook for its stock a little later this morning with jonathan geller of the boy genius report. >> good old bump on the road on the way to a trillion dollar market cap. got to 600 pretty easily. and now it's back at 500. above 600 i guess. tough to get to a trillion dollar market cap. cisco got to 600 billion once, too. it's at 100 billion. apple still at 500. we talked about are they going to come out with the chartreuse slightly smaller mini ipad. and that's going to be the -- a lot of people waiting in line for that one. >> i do have to say, i'm in the market for a mini ipad. >> not for the max ipad? >> no, i want something smaller to carry around, but bigger than my phone. >> i have a hard time seeing m

today the start of a santa claus rally despite the fears over the fiscal cliff? rick, let me kick this off with you. what kind of expectations are out there on this fiscal cliff story? we seem to feel that there's a deal in the air. why else do we see such optimism today? rick? >> oh, for me? i'm sorry. i'll tell you what, maria, i'm not sure what's going on in washington. i'm not sure who those republicans are. i'm not so sure on whether the fiscal conservatives in the party know something about some big reforms on medicare and medica medicare, social security is, any of the retirement or tax issues, but i'll tell you this. i think that all these stories aren't necessarily going lead us to the truth. i personally have a very size way i'm approaching this. the president is supposed to leave for a 21-day vacation in hawaii on december 17th. where he is on december 18th will tell me, and i think the markets will pay attention. i find it hard to believe, and i agree with bill and many, who are very not amused by the house taking their long weekend. i'm sure that the president would have n

. >> thanks peter. always good to see you. again our two fiscal cliff portfolios for the first time since the election of november 6th, they are betting we will not go over the fiscal cliff interestingly enough. right now the dow up just 15 points as we head towards the close. much more to come on the second hour of "closing bell." >>> and it's that time of day. it's 4:00 p.m. here on wall street. maria will be back in the seat tomorrow. as the clock winds down to the fiscal cliff deadline, this is how we're finishing on wall street. at this stage it looks like we got a gain of only 14 points for the dow. obviously we were higher than that, not much more but were higher earlier in the day. the nasdaq up by only eight points and the s&p finishing up by just a trickle of positive. well, ticktock. the market is closed. seems to be waiting once again for some clear signal on what's going to happen with regards to the fiscal cliff. how can you make money in the final trading sessions of the year amongst all this uncertainty? >> we have definite answers coming with our panel. back with us

about for years. the fiscal cliff is a name that the media came up with, but some of us have been saying for years, you have got to stop the out of control federal spending or you're going to end up at this point, we're there. >> congress mon cole, i just want to remind folks of something that you have said about the middle class tax cuts and letting them go on and also your reply to that. i just want to play that to get our viewers up to speed. >> in my view, we all agree that we're not going to raise taxes on people that make less $250,000. we should just take them out of this discussion right now. >> he has his idea, i don't want to raise taxes on anybody. >> is the split i think inside to the republican caucus? >> i think it's more of a discussion on tactics. none of us want to raise the rates on anybody, but the reality is, the rates go up on everybody at the end of the months. to me, i would get that off the table now, so they don't worry about it. i think those people are actually the president's leverage in these debate. it's the democrats going around screaming your taxes are go

their principles and would it be ok if doing so sent us over the fiscal cliff? give us a call this morning. you can also catch up with us on all of your favorite social media websites. a very good morning to you. i want to begin with the question of compromise or sticking to principle. this is a question a gallup organization asked in a recent poll. it found 62% of americans would like to see the federal government leaders compromise on an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff budget measures set to go into effect next month. more than twice the 25% who want leaders to stick to their principles. a majority of all party groups favor compromise. here is the breakdown from the gallup organization. 71% of democrats say they want a compromise bursa's 21% who say the party should stick to their principles. among republicans 55% one compromise. 35% say stick to your principles. the gallup poll also found americans are more optimistic and pessimistic that an agreement will be reached before the deadline. 58% say it is a very or somewhat likely leaders will find a solution. 39% say it is not

egypt. david: egypt, the fiscal cliff, so much uncertainty. where do you put your money? go to the big caps. look at the winners among the big cats. not huge, but this is where people are puttinggtheir money. they want it in safety. they are not putting it in gold. if you have to be in the market, go to the big cats. that's what's happening. liz: president obama discussing the fiscal cliff, and, plus, speaking live to the iowa governor, his state facing a double whammy if we go over the cliff. what compromises he'd love to see come out of washington, and how he believes they could reach them. this is a guy who deals with the democratic senate, so, really, he knows how to cross the aisle to make it happen. david: somebody else you know about, with all the talk about tax increases, the idea of a simple flat tax dead? we'll see. forbes doesn't think so. there's a news conference along with washington lawmakers to push for the flat tax. he joins us later this hour. liz: first, what drove the marketings for today's data download. stocks ending lower, struggling for direction most of the

union with candy crowley is right now. >>> to recap the past week of activity atop the fiscal cliff, nothing happened. today the search for a sweet spot between the deal the speaker can get from the president and the one he can sell to his bruised party. >> they have put forward an unbalanced plan that actually lowers rates for the wealthiest americans. >> when is he going to take a step towards us? >> republican house speakers tom cole and marsha blackburn. >>> then falling off the fiscal cliff, a tumble that would shake the world with international monetary fund christine lagarde. >>> plus what happens if nothing happens with moody's chief economist mark zandy, jackie comes of the "new york times" and cnn's dana bash. i'm candy crowley and this is "state of the union." >>> politically the speaker is playing with a weaker hand that the president, the pressure is higher on him and his critics are harder too. >> the republican party's finished. >> he is selling out our children right now with these massive tax increases and that's a starting bid. he's saying here $800 billion now will you sit

see in a fiscal cliff solution. we've got the exclusive results of our exclusive cnbc all-america economic survey. >>> now to everybody's all-american, sue herera standing by at the nyse. >> you're sweet, ty. thanks. >>> we're a little bit on the downside. we really kind of retraced a little bit on the dow jones industrial average. previous to this we were solidly in the green in all three of the major market indices. the dow now down 14 1/2 points. nasdaq up eight. the s&p is down just a fraction. of course we are also watching apple on the back of yesterday's drop. the stock today is traded up $4.82. that's just under a percentage move to the plus side. it's rebounding, still at bear market territory, however. it has lost over $50 billion in market cap over the past few days alone. our bob pisani joins me here on the floor of the nyse. what are you hearing from traders? the market is drifting a little bit. the focus is on apple. there seems to be a little bit of enthusiasm that it can come back to the up side. >> we were up a little while ago, now we're down. i think what happen

other reasons. >> i would guarantee if there is a fiscal cliff agreement, this stock shoots up big time. >> capital gains. that's all about capital gains in my mind. i cited other things i think are a problem but capital gains is why they're selling. >> have a great weekend, everybody. "power" starts right now. >> announcer: halftime is over. "power lunch" and the second half of the trading day start right now. >>> indeed it does. and today on "power lunch," no progress. a very stark assessment from the house speaker on where the fiscal cliff talks stand with 24 days to go. where should you put your money heading into this weekend? could be a very crucial weekend. >>> no worries. with the unemployment rate still near an 8% level, why some companies can't find workers. there's work and it is not a skills gap. we'll show you what else is being factored in to that equation. >>> and no fair, perhaps? well, a big change at big blue. ibm changing the way it pays down its 401(k). will other companies follow suit? tyler mathisen, my partner, who is always fair, always working, and is always a w

members of congress talking about this fiscal cliff. hosted by bloomberg government and the lloyd. this is about an hour. -- and deloitte. this is about an hour. >> good morning. i'm the head of bloomberg government. thank you for joining us today, and thank you to deloitte for partnering with us in this event. when we launched bloomberg government just about two years ago, we had the aspiration of creating a one-stop shop, with data, tools, news, and analysis to help government affairs and government sales professionals make better and faster decisions. we went a long way toward achieving that aspiration. a big part of it is conversations on the important issues that face our nation today, particularly at the intersection of business and government. today's discussion on the fiscal cliff clearly meets that. we are honored to have such a thoughtful panel. senator mark warner, senator bob corker, congressman chris van hollen, governor tim pawlenty, who is currently president and ceo of the financial services roundtable. moderating our discussion today is al hunt. we always love having al

continues over the fiscal cliff, neither boehner nor geithner can say for certain that the country will not go over the edge. i'm shannon bream. america's news headquarters live from the nation's capital starts right now. >> shannon: we want to get to the budget standoff. peter doocy joins us live. there is time to strike a deal but not a lot. >> reporter: that's right. the speaker of the house john boehner made a point today to say there is not much time between election day and the end of the year. he thinks the white house has already wasted weeks because he does not think the proposal to avoid a fiscal cliff is serious one. negotiations here are nowhere. another republican, senator lindsey graham thinks he thinks things are heading down hill. >> i think we are going over the cliff. it's clear to me they made a political calculation. the offer doesn't deal with the entitlement reform to save the medicare and medicaid and social security from imminent bankruptcy. it raises $1.6 trillion on job creators to destroy the economy. no spending controls. >> reporter: treasuresy secretary tim gei

on the fiscal cliff. the president did speak publicly about it today. but we haven't exactly taken any step backwards either on wall street as far as the major averages go. we have had more special dividends declared, which we'll get to. first, get you caught up on the markets. kind of a meandering day. a few economic bits of data out today. other than that, not a lot going on as far as economic data go. we're all just waiting to see that white puff of smoke come out of washington and nothing yet so far. the dow virtually unchanged right now at 12,966. the nasdaq is down seven points right now. we'll talk with seema mody about that. and the s&p 500 index at this hour is down 1.80 in change at 1407. in today's "closing bell" exchange, we go over what is going on as we head toward the end of the year. seema mody is at the nasdaq today. jeff, what do you make of what's going on in washington? i'm most interested in the fact that the markets have lost the volatili volatility. we're not seeing the markets respond to every single statement that comes out of washington right now. what do

. stock prices on wall street modestly higher today i did spite no sign of a deal on the fiscal cliff. take a look how we're settling out this thursday afternoon on wall street. the industrial average at 13,074. the s&p up just a fraction. will the markets get a boost from another cash infusion? ben pace says he's expecting the federal reserve to announce another round of stimulus at the meeting next week. is that what the markets really want right now? ben pace joins me along with chris heize and rick santelli. ben, let's talk fed policy. you think the fed announces qe-4 next week? >> i think it's the fact the twist operation is ending at the ends of the year, and they don't feel compelled to incrementally tighten that. that means it has to be replaced. that's the qe-4, the fact they'll continue to buy to continue to be just as easy as they've been since the september 16th qe- 3 announcement. >> so you think it's a continuation. what's the impact on the market, do you think? is it priced in? are we expecting that? what do you think? >> i think it's generally priced in. the thing that conce

fiscal cliff. our guest is republican representative tom cole of oklahoma, a member of the appropriations and budget committee. also joined by georgetown university tax law professor john buckley on how the alternative minimum tax is affecting fiscal negotiations. "washington journal" is next. ♪ ♪ host: 25 days to go before the united states faces the fiscal cliff, the white house has rejected a proposal from house republicans to prevent tax hikes and spending cuts at the end of the year. no formal talks between the two sides are scheduled today. will go outside the nation's capital to get your voice involved. republicans -- democrats -- independents -- send us a tweet, post your comments on facebook, or send us an e-mail. we begin with some of the papers across the country today and how this latest proposal from house republicans is playing out in the papers. courtesy of "the atlantic journal-constitution" -- here is "the denver post" -- finally, here is "of the arizona republic" -- here is "the washington post" on what is inside this deal -- we want to get your take o

fiscal cliff. you probably wonder what's going on in these houses in washington. they put themselves and their political gains first and put their future in prosperity second. hey, you voted them in. remember what happened the last time washington got into a budget battle like this? lawmakers put a band aid on the problem and the u.s. lost its aaa credit rating in the process. i warned you about the economic storm headed our way, partly because of europe and partly because of this fiscal cliff. i also told you about an american economic renaissance that could be just ahead. just beyond the storm clouds. the fiscal cliff is fixable. every day washington fails to make a deal, more damage is being done. john king, ken rogath is the former chief economist at the international monetary fund and diane swonk joins us from mezro financial. john, some people say don't sweat it. the threat of going over the fiscal cliff is overblown. it will get done in an 11th hour deal. as you read the politics at play, what do you see? >> both sides digging in. you played the president saying, i want that r

number one story that we've been talking about every morning here since the election. fiscal cliff, big, big issue. there are now, it seems, growing numbers of people on both the right and the left who would like to see us just go over that fiscal cliff. how big of a problem would that be? >> that would be a big problem. i actually still believe that those -- the democrats, the administration, republicans in the final analysis don't want to see that happen. they do understand that not only would that present a problem in the near term as we went over the cliff at the end of the year, but we still then have the whole debt ceiling fight that would transpire shortly into the new year. the issue isn't simply the negative result of going over the cliff, but it's also that business, consumers, everybody continues to hold back on the uncertainty. and we believe the economy is pretty well positioned potentially in 2013 if we can put this behind us. so i think a lot of what's going on is what you would expect to see in this negotiation, very public negotiation, which is not the best way to do it

fiscal cliff is just being released. let's go to e-mailen j amon jav >> they say boehner is offering multi-step solution here, including what he's after is $800 billion in revenue through tax reform. that's obviously significantly less than the $1.6 trillion the president asked for his-n his initial offer last week. other details in this offer being reported by nbc. health savings of $600 billion. other mandatory savings of $300 billion. a revision to cpi of $200 billion. and further discretionary savings of $300 billion. guys, it looks like the horse trading is alive and well here in washington. now this offer being extended from the republicans. you can assume that the white house will not think this is enough tax revenue to go forward, but, of course, offers are being exchanged here so that's a sign negotiations are under way, guys. >> let's get into the details here. $600 billion in health savings. what does that mean for medicare? break it down in terms of where these savings come from. >> i wish i could. what we don't have here is a lot of detail hanging off this chris

the fiscal cliff, the white house has wasted another week. >> is the president set on driving us over a fiscal cliff unless the g.o.p. caves or can a deal be made? >> our allies no longer trust us or have confidence in us and our adversaries no longer fear us. the president can make bold statements and bold talk but i don't care they care. >> rioting in egypt. civil war in syria. and radical hamas leader is welcomed in gaza. obama's mid ootion policy is in shambles and former vice president dick cheney says the president's failure puts us all in danger. >> gong ma'am style. >> i love this little chubby south korean guy. >> it's the most downloaded video of all time. >> this is the pony, remember chubby checker. >> gangnam style. >> and bill o'reilly sits down with jay leno. we'll show you the highlights from the late night gab fest. caution, you where to internet no spin zone. the factor begins right now. >> hi everywhere, i'm laura ingraham in for bill o'reilly. thanks for watching us tonight. g.o.p. and post election blues. that's the subject of this evening's talking points memo ma

there is an 80% chance we're not going over the fiscal cliff. if you look back at the history of in effect the immigration lottery system that we had, you'll find a lot of american entprures came through that program and this notion there is going to be a tradeoff, maybe preelection. that was the reality but not now. the change that took place on election day was these items like startup 2.0, serve for that. that's the starting point. dream act which i think is an embarrassment we didn't pass already, somebody who lives in a common wealth i see many kids grown up in virginia and gone to virginia hools and parents have paid taxes for years and in the process of trying to continue their american experience, we luckily were able to overturn legislation and try to exclude those folks from going to college. but that i think becomes now maybe not a given but it's sure as he can going to be fairly shortly. the chalsleng now going to be because there are these 11 million undocumented persons who work in america trying to sort through some path of legal status for those folks which i think h

happen to some of these stocks depending on the fiscal cliff. maybe things will not be so bad. on the other hand, now you have a stock in a completely separate sector. locate gap stores. all of a sudden end of last week, we saw this huge drop. the stock down about 15%. liz: what is it about gap at this point? >> >> it has been on such a great rally. i think there is some sentiment that because they did not announce any sort of forward diviiend that some of the investors are disappointed. with this thursday coming out with november retail sales data, people are thinking it is maybe not so good much like people are saying at apple that people are taking money off the table, that may be the same story with gap. liz: one story that may very relate is john woods the fact that gasoline went flat today has come down. down $0.10 over the past three weeks does this trend continue where is the next trade you cannot have high oil prices and expect people to pay high oil prices at the pump. in economy will just come right to a halt. i can see crude coming down to $82 really just hanging there. th

no dispute about the fact that we are now 28 days frrm going over the fiscal cliff with no talks taking place between either side and more troubling, no talks scheduled between the president and house speaker. we take all of this up here tonight with former special assistant to president george w. bush, veteran democratic politicos strategist and republican pollster. president obama issued a warning to syrian leader declaring there will be consequences if syria uses chemical weapons on its own people. the president's steered clear of defining those consequences. egis political crisis is widening cajon. a general strike to protest the presence unrestricted new powers. in this country's hospitals that deadly new bacteria that is more than just drug-resistant, it is draw prevent spreading. just how high is that this book of? we begin tonight with the fiscal clef which produced more far spent progress rejecting the speaker of the house claim that no progress is being made >> the house speaker said on fox news sunday right now i would say we are nowhere in terms of the fiscal cliff ne

on vacation without the notion. the fiscal cliff glasgows from being half full to half empty that's where we want it, and once it's half empty, it's much more immune to disappointment. that's because those hoping for a deal will be gone. checked out, sold. replaced by three types of strongholders. get this. first like when the debt ceiling was raised. a move that countered for a huge chunk of the markets. these people believe that some kind of deal is inevitable. they think selling now is tantamount to giving up the bottom. the second set. they feel it won't have much of an impact on the economy. they believe we won't go into recession and the whole thing is over, done. mellow drama even. they think fearmongers. and this is their group of strong holders. a little time passes, they think, hey, should be better off going over the cliff. rich will pay more of their fair shares and higher taxes on dividends. government spending sliced where it should be and and the bloated defense budget. unnecessary social programs. me? i think we aren't where we need to be yet when the it comes to aba

course and the prospect of increased taxes as we get closer to the fiscal cliff. looks like everybody's taxes are going up no matter how this thing is comes out. consumer spending accounts for more than 2/3 of economic output. especially important at this time of year of course when a lot of sectors in all of these areas have been struggling, here is a bit of good news. martha: okay. take it. bill: not a lot. if you're driving on the road, thanks to shrinking demand manned lower fuel prices gas is sinking like a stone. a drop of 34 cents in the past month. in st. louis, drivers paying just over $3. even l.a. is paying 3.68. which is below four bucks where they have been for a very long time. even further drops expected in the coming days. martha: a devastating loss this morning. jennie rivera, the mexican american singer on the verge of crossing over to this country in u.s. popularity is presumed to have been killed when a private plane crashed in monterrey, mexico. authorities have not confirmed her debt. her relatives say they have few doubts she was on board that plane. s

fiscal cliff. that is the case now. what do republicans get in return? senator lindsey graham is live on that. martha: looks like a beautiful morning everywhere, doesn't it. new reaction as details are now emerging in yet another nfl football tragedy. this time a crash that killed a dallas cowboy player and left another player charged with manslaughter this morning. >> i think everyone in our organization who knew him is completely numb and has been numb the last couple days. football is a game of emotion. a lot of different emotions circulating. somehow how some way, we have to process it all and understand that life is different than football and we had a job to do today gressiv, and they're them. yes. but they're here. yes. are you...? there? yes. no. are you them? i'm me. but those rates are for... them. so them are here. yes! you want to run through it again? no, i'm good. you got it? yes. rates for us and them -- now that's progressive. call or click today. music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make meone happy.♪.♪it's so e ♪make j

a moment. we do want to begin with the markets and that looming fiscal cliff. the dow finishing november lower for the second consecutive month. the blue chips falling half a percent in november. and #% sinnasdaq and s&p did fi higher last month. six out of ten sectors managed to post a gain. consumer discretionary stocks up the most. utilities the biggest losers. and while individual trading sessions may have been choppy, it was another month of low volatility. the vix remained below 20 for the fourth consecutive month and that's the longest streak since february of 2007. a big part of the market story has obviously been a big topic dominating the sunday talk shows. tim geithner arguing republicans need make the next move in negotiations. >> republicans have said that they don't like those reforms or they would like to do more. and if that's true, then they should tell us what they would like as an alternative. build on those, tell us how. but we can't react to anything until we see the details of the proposal and we need it on the rates and revenue side as well as on the spend

number. i think only u.s. government now can stop this kind of job growth. a fiscal cliff go over -- >> snatching victory from the jaws. >> a superstorm. nothing can stop the generation of jobs in this economy. >> there's a great article today in one of the papers about how apartment building, we have a shortage of apartments and shortage of housing and shortage of autos and shortage of office buildings developing, shortage of shopping centers, shortage of shopping malls. this is what begins a movement. you have to hire eventually. now you could say people are not looking for work, come on. look, jobs are here. they can -- it can be just easily reversed if you have no idea what is the future because of washington. >> given the data points that we've had in terms of claims numbers that did reflect an impact from sandy, they said 85,000 jobs or 86,000 jobs were sliced because of impact of sandy. average hours worked unchanged. doesn't that -- i don't know -- doesn't that bring into question a little bit the participation in the survey. how can it have no impact whatsoever? it seems

new with no details. it is a republican compromise solution to the impending fiscal cliff. spending cut and tax increases that both sides mean would mean recession. after what both sides called a frustrating weekend. today's development don't appear to break a log jam. not yet. ed henry begins our coverage. >> reporter: good evening. they are saying the plan is ridiculous, so much so they will not offer counterproposal to the g.o.p. counterproposal and say tonight unless speaker boehner gives in on raising taxes on the rich, the president is ready to go off the cliff. >> right now i'd say we are nowhere, period. nowhere. >> john boehner declaring a stalemate in an exclusive with fox, as republicans teed off on president obama first offer that included new spending plus 1.6 trillion in tax hikes. totally unacceptable. >> i think we are going over the cliff. it's clear to me they made political calculation. white house officials insisted disaster could be amended and demanded a counter offer on the table. >> what we hope for is specificity from the republicans. >> an hour later, boehn

fiscal cliff, with just 27 days to go and less for the official congressional session. president obama and john boehner making comments on the issue a short time ago and according to our deal meter, there it is, still only a quarter of the way there. we have got all sides of this story covered. john harwood live at the white house. eamon javers on capitol hill and the president's comments. >> the president gave an interview to our colleagues at bloomberg and said a couple of things. first of all, his priorities now trying to break republicans in their resistance to raising the top rate by some amount, a stance republicans have been consistent on. more revenue, question, not higher rates, he is insisting on that as the price of negotiating with him. and he said the reason for that is if you take all of what can be raised in revenue from deductions that is politically realistic, not trying to take away the mortgage deduction in the face of tremendous resistance from consumers and the housing industry, you can only raise about 300 to $400 billion, but i think that is a promising ind

washington continues to look for some kind of a deal on the fiscal cliff. >> some kind being the operative words. hello everyone, again. maria is going to be back tomorrow but in the meantime you're stuck with me. let's see what the markets are up to today. the dow holding marginally above water. as for the nasdaq and the s&p, let's get a check on those two as well. they've been kind of positive today, but not superbly so. at least it is a positive start to the trading week. >> now, forget about the number of days -- shopping days until christmas. we're talking about 13 and a half trading days after today how to position your money ahead of what might or might not happen with the fiscal cliff deal. are we ready to go? let's find out how you should be investing. everybody's looking at me like i should not be saying something right now. okay. everybody's there. mandy? >> okay. joining us now we have a cast of thousands. dan mcmahon from raymond james. nathan backrat. and our very own rick santelli. thank you for joining us today. nathan, let's start with you. so 13 and a half tradi

way on hopes of a compromise on the fiscal cliff stalemate in washington. eamon javers standing by in a moment with information on a bipartisan letter from lawmakers that's. putting tax hikes and entitlement cuts firmly on the table. >> i'm bill griffeth. let's show you, and the charts tell the day's story, as it usually does. can you get when the president began speaking at business round table and we learned that at least 40 house republicans are breaking ranks to talk about anything, all possibilities as they said in an open letter. right now the dow is up 110, near the highs of the day. 13,062.59. the nasdaq is going the other direction. blame apple and overall technology having a tough day. down 13 points right now on the nasdaq at 2982. the s&p is holding with a gain of about five points. we'll have more on the markets in a moment. first, let's get to what's going on in washington. more republicans breaking ranks to join what we hope will be a bipartisan call for higher tax rates and entitlement cuts. eamon javers on capitol hill has the very latest details for us. eamon. >> rep

fiscal cliff has caused several lawmakers to walk back from that promise. reliable sources is at the top of the hour. >>> the democratic republic of the congo is a nation the size of all of western europe. it may be in for a violent regime change as rebels have gained ground in recent weeks. congo was the setting for the heart of darkness and that hasn't lifted in 110 years since the story was public . 5.4 million people have died. jeff, why is it that the crisis seems to be heating up? you point out that the congo that the government's army is losing battle after battle. >> i think this is really an issue of state failure. i've been covering congo for six years and i've seen the country get weaker and weaker since i began. there was a big election in 2006 that created a lot of hope and enthusiasm that things were turning around. they haven't. the government has become more corrupt. there's been more rebel groups and what we're seeing in the east is a symptom. it's a symptom and a cause. it's a symptom of this weak state that can't control its own territory. it watch these couple hundred

it out for you. all the talk about we can't fall off the fiscal cliff, we say why not? it may not be the worse option? maybe it is. none of them stop the problem. we'll take a look. here to crunch the numbers, stephen hayes, fox news contributor and writer for "the weekly standard." thanks for coming on to brave the math. both sides get so emotional here. it is not about emotion, it is about the numbers and what will save this country. looking at the real numbers on the fiscal cliff. we projected it out over 10 years if we show you the big full screen we made and numbers look pretty scary from a tax perspective there. if we went over the fiscal cliff it would increase taxes 5.6 trillion. that is 10-year period. fairly say no one believes we would stay on the road for 10 years. i want to do it so you do side by side comparison. spending cuts 1.2 trillion. the president wants to raise taxes 1.6 trillion. cut spending by 600. the house plan looks like sort of a flip-flop of that. what do you think of all these numbers. what do you make of it? what is your first impression? >> i think

. they are nowhere near a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. peter doocy is life in washington with more. >> republicans have had their proposal to avoid the fiscal cliff complete with 800 billion of new revenue over a decade on the table for more than a day now. it has yet to be publicly embraced by the slightest bit by any prominent democrats. because of that gop lawmakers are saying that means the white house wants to go over the fiscal cliff to make it a point. >> howard dean said it patti murray who ran the senator ideal committee. i think the presidency is a political victory for his party as they go over the cliff. i know republicans are concerned there is going to be a secondary session. >> the white house proposal raises taxes 1.6 trillion over a decade. republicans close loopholes and get rid of deductions. they say the mast won't work. >>> it is still out of balance. it is 800 million worth of revenues. he said he is going to do that by lowering rates. when you look at the map it doesn't work. >> the house majority with kevin mccarthy said yesterday the speaker moved

serious proposal. >> the president may have the upper hand because the fiscal cliff tops allow him to back the opposition into a corner by framing this as republicans raising taxes. >> if congress does nothing, every family in merica will see their income taxes automatically up on january 1st. that is sort of like a lump of coal you get for christmas. congressional democrats operating like they don't have to compromise on spending or taxes. >> elections have consequences. the president campaigned, made it very clear. made very clear that he was supporting tax cuts for the middle-class, that he wanted the expiration of the tax cuts for the high end. >> very little progress among the inside player so far, the president plans to keep pressuring republicans from the outside. meeting with the nation's governors on tuesday and then addressing the business roundtable on wednesday. lou: thank you. ed henry, fox news chief white house correspondent. joining me now, a pulitzer prize-winning journalist, campaign strategists, form reagan political director of, veteran democratic campaign strategi

handle the fiscal cliff? 48% believe president obama and republicans will reach an agreement but 43% say they won't. meantime, president obama is giving a stern warning to republicans who may be trying to use the debt ceiling as leverage. >> if congress in any way suggests that they're going to tie negotiations to debt ceiling votes and take us to the brink of default once again as part of a budget negotiation, which by the way we have never done in our history until we did it last year, i will not play that game. >> we should say that the president and house speaker john boehner did speak by phone yesterday. that was the first time in a week. no one is saying what the conversation was about. shortly after that call treasury secretary tim geithner went on cnbc and said the white house is ready to go off the cliff. >> if republicans do not agree to that, is the administration prepared to go over the fiscal cliff in. >> absolutely. there's no prospect to an agreement that doesn't involve those rates going up on the top 2% of the wealthiest. it's only 2%. >> i want to bring in "usa tod

. ♪ >> bret: the government creeps closer to the fiscal cliff with orders for the military and others to start preparing for the worst. this is "special report." ♪ ♪ >> bret: good evening. i'm bret baier. the country plays the waiting game to see if country and the president take the economy off the fiscal cliff, president obama says he will not play the debt ceiling game again. but he is taking a few more shots in the public relations game. turning the screws on republicans, a little bit more. chief white house correspondent ed henry starts us off tonight. >> reporter: finally the blame for stalled budget talks on republicans, president ratcheted up the lesh on john boehner. >> no one wants to have this done more than me. >> reporter: telling agencies to watch for massive spending cuts from going over the fiscal cliff and warped the business exectives the economy could take another hit if the republicans decide to extend the middle class tax cut to avoid the cliff for now. then come back with more leverage. to tie it to a hike in the debt ceiling. >> we are 23409 going play that gam

mean, you don't really know what is going to come out of the u.s. fiscal cliff, how damaging potentially that can be to u.s. confidence, u.s. activity. things seem to be holding up fairly well in china. but i think there is still going to be some concerns about the whole performance of the asian economy and whether that can actually pick up next year. and then, of course, in the eurozone itself, we seem to be mending the problems progressively and taking out the tail risks, which i think is good and that is the bottom line that investors should take going further forward, but at the same time, there are some elements that you can have. if you do a forecast, in a way you could come up with something like 1% quotes for next year, but at the same time, you have to be conscious that we've had such a battery of downside impact, downside negative news coming through really for all economists in the western world in the last few years. you have to be very cognizant of those. >> i think so. julian, we're going to leave because we have to get a break in and we've got to g to egypt as

lot to chew on over the weekend with the sunday talk shows, focusing on the fiscal cliff. it looks like we're looking at a lower open for the dow. as for the action in europe, really, the action focuses on italy where there's an impending political regime change. more on that in just a moment. the road map starts at the golden arches. mcdonald's blowing out expectations for november sales after the dismal drop in the month of october. hoping to fuel the rise, the bacon/onion/cheddar sandwich. >> there's one thing for certain, taxes on top earners are going up. >> turmoil in italy. berlusconi throws his hat in the ring. retail sales numbers out of china, hoping the economy is in fact on an upswing. >> apple, enthusiasm. jeffreys trimming its price target to 800 from 900, as apple shares do trade lower in the pre-market. we'll start with mcdonald's, posting better than expected november same-store sales, global comps up 2.4. u.s. same-store sales up 2.5, offered by breakfast offerings, including that cheddar/bacon/onion sandwich, as melissa mentioned. jim? people are saying the u.s.

counting down the hours the fiscal cliff deadline, we have somebody who says this isn't the real fiscal cliff at december 31 isn't the real deadline to watch. we will tell you what it isn't how you might want to play it. david: how do i go flyfishing with paul volcker? or maybe lunch with business titans. how you can do those experiences with some of the top minds. liz: what drove the market with the "data download." david: if it is in ontana, i would take it. liz: stocks pushed into the green with all the major indices pushing into the green. longest winning streak in nearly two months. potatoes and industrials were the top perffrming sectors while they could not quite get it. oil for the fifth day in a row slip into a three-week low on concern over the italian prime minister resignation soon and the impact on europe's debt crisis. crude and in the day down $0.37 $85.56 per barrel. gasoline has come down $0.10 over the past few weeks. korn falling to a three-week low so far i'm growing demand overseas for supplies from the u.s. soybeans also dropping on slowing demand. david: peter ken

fiscal cliff negotiations. it is not painful until the very end of the year. how this benefits the company. adam: the note dropped 7.7%, the lowest rate since december 2008. that is just a headline. let's get to nicole petallides. the traders are reading a bit into this report. nicole: the first thing they noted when i came in here, a lot of them are talking about the fact that the prior month had been revised lower. the prior month which seemed like they were good news, in fact, were not as good as they seemed. they take these numbers with a grain of salt. the dow, nasdaq and s&p are mixed today. the dow is up about one third of 1%. what is interesting, this will be our third wedding week in a row. they have not been dramatic moves, but last week was pretty slots. jpmorgan and bank of america are some names on the dow that are holding on pretty nicely. the tech heavy nasdaq down one half of 1%. adam: a lot of people watching that jobs number. thank you very much. dennis: according to today's jobs report, the unemployment rate is down to 7.7%. the lowest level it has been to since

-- politicians from both sides said they would be able to avoid the fiscal cliff. this included chris van hollen. also, senators mark warner and bob corker, a republican from tennessee. this is one hour. >> good morning. i'm the head of bloomberg government. thank you for joining us today, and thank you to deloitte for partnering with us in this event. when we launched bloomberg government just about two years ago, we had the aspiration of creating a one-stop shop, with data, tools, news, and analysis to help government affairs and government sales professionals make better and faster decisions. we went a long way toward achieving that aspiration. a big part of it is conversations on the important issues that face our nation today, particularly at the intersection of business and government. today's discussion on the fiscal cliff clearly meets that. we are honored to have such a thoughtful panel. senator mark warner, senator bob corker, congressman chris van hollen, governor tim pawlenty, who is currently president and ceo of the financial services roundtable. moderating our discussion today is

contemplating a fallback plan for the so called "fiscal cliff", which includes extending tax cuts for the middle class and resuming a fight over spending and taxes for the wealthy later. meanwhile, going overseas, nato makes a move on the turkish border with syria. military officials deny preparations for military intervention. protesters in egypt march on the palace as mohamed morsi flees. international and domestic news is all on the table for you this morning as we open up the phone lines. also, send us a tweet. or post your comment on facebook. or send us an e-mail. we will get back to that new york times story. first, some other headlines on the domestic front. here is the "washington times." also, sticking with the senate, the baltimore sun reporting this headline -- in politics, here is the denver post -- open phones before the first 30 minutes. we have a short show because the house is coming in at 9:00. steve in gaithersburg, maryland, a republican caller. caller: host: when did the republican party become the party that restricts poor? i understand the tax cut for the rich is im

with you. i'm terrell brown. we begin with negotiations to avert the so-called fiscal cliff both republicans and white house hold their lines and no formal talks yesterday. president obama said he wasn't ruling out some reductions in entitlement programs such as medicare and social security, meanwhile house speaker john boehner has to win over hard liners in his own party. susan mcginnis is following it all. >> reporter: hi. good morning. there are some glimmers of common ground here among the two sides that could form the basis of a deal. the president is now talking about actually lowering the tax rate for the top 2% not now but later. and republicans are now taking some heat over their latest plan a lot of it from within their own party. >> five, four -- >> reporter: house speaker john boehner led the countdown to the lighting of the capitol hill christmas tree last night. >> one. >> reporter: but a different countdown weighs on the minds of these lawmakers, the countdown to the fiscal cliff. a series of tax increases and spending cuts due to kick in at the end the year. >> go